Vehicular Collision Automatic Advisory and Data Management System

A Thesis Project Proposal Presented to the Faculty of The Electrical/Electronics Engineering Department of the University of San Carlos Cebu City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering

By

Gerard O. Campomayor Jelley Gay P. Ceniza Donna Bel R. Flores Dexter E. Nuevo

Engr. Jerome M. Puza Engr. Adrian D. Villarin Advisers

August 2012

Advisers Certification

This thesis project proposal has been reviewed by the undersigned and is certified acceptable in content and form for proposal hearing presentation:

_______________________ Engr. Jerome M. Puza Adviser

_______________________ Engr. Adrian D. Villarin Adviser

Table of Contents
Title Page Advisers Certification Table of Contents i ii

Chapter 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Chapter 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Bibliography

The Problem and Its Settings Introduction Statement of the Problem Significance of the Study Scope and Limitations Definition of Terms Review of Related Literature ECall Portable systems Single-board embedded system Data logger and Google maps Methodology Project Flow System Overview Hardware Design Coding Testing and Calibration Halfway Deliverables

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Chapter 1 The Problem and Its Settings

Vehicular collision occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle or other stationary obstructions. It is one of the major causes of external injuries, death and property damage. There are many proposed solutions in order to decrease the occurrence of vehicular collisions implementation of laws and rules, development of vehicular safety systems, automatic advisory to authorities and data gathering of vehicular collision for further basis in regulating the laws and existing vehicular safety systems. Automatic advisory and data logging of vehicular collision is a developing technology in the United States of America and several countries in Europe it aims to improve the response time of responsible authorities and accurate data collection of concerned agencies and personnel. This chapter will focus on the problems encountered in detection of vehicular collision and automatic advisory and logging of vehicular collision data and on outlining the proposed solutions.

1.1 Introduction
According to the Department of Health, vehicular collision is the top cause of external injuries on the year 2011 and on the first quarter of 2012. The average percentage of vehicular accidents that happen in the Philippines is more than fiftypercent[1][2][3]. Although these external injuries are non-fatal, it is still considered to be one of the major problems by the police and health department.

Data on vehicular collisionslocation and time of vehicular collision and intensity of collisionshould be logged for precaution and for a more systematic system of gathering data by the police and concerned agencies. The detection and systematic collection of vehicular collision data is essential for all the concerned agencies such as the Philippine National Police Traffic Management Group, Department of Public Works and Highways and Department of Health because it can serve as a basis for regulation of new traffic laws, improvement of public roads and a more convenient data gathering method.

Number of Fatalities on the Road as Reported by the Police vs. the Health Sector4

Record of Road Accident Fatalities and Injuries in ASEAN Countries4

As shown in the tables above, there is an underreporting of vehicular accidents to the police authorities because data gathering of both sectors are not done in a centralized manner. Throughout the years the development of crash sensors and vehicle-collision 2

sensors has increased exponentially. For the convenience of mankind, the acquisition of data of these sensors has been done in many ways (e.g. GSM and internet). With the use of GSM modules, vehicular collision data can be transferred or logged easily. Internet is already the information highway of most people in the Philippines so storage of vehicular collision data on a local database and displaying it on a website is adapted.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Vehicular Collision tops the list of the causes of external injuries in the Philippines last 2011 and early 2012 according to the data acquired by the Department of Health. The respective agencies Department of Health (DOH), Philippine National Police Traffic Management Group (PNP-TMG) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) gather their own data for their respective databases since there is no existing coordinated data management system among these concerned agencies. Underreporting of vehicular accidents is also evident in the great difference of reported accidents between these three agencies. Response time of emergency rescue units and hospitals is also crucial in increasing the survival rate of the involved parties in the vehicular accident. Taking these facts into account, this project is a good innovation that can greatly solve these existing problems in our country. Therefore, this study aims to provide an automatic advisory to the authorities and concerned personnel if there is a vehicular collision. The objectives of this study are: To design a sensor system that gathers . To design a communication device using a GPS module, GSM module and microcontroller that will send location and time stamp data. To develop a system that will receive and store data into a local database. To develop a website that will display data from a local database.

1.3 Significance of the Study

Vehicular collision tops the list of external causes of reported injuries in the Philippines according to the recent data from the Department of Health. Road accidents happen in different parts of the country, in any time of the day. It is recognized by all that because of the different agencies and different jurisdictions, the underreporting of these traffic incidents has become a serious problem by the police. An efficient road accident data system is simply not yet available in the Philippines. This thesis project will use accelerometers to detect the collision, GPS to identify the location of the vehicle, GSM to send the coordinates of the vehicle and time-stamp data and a website to display the data.

1.4 Scope and Limitations

The study will focus on the design of an automatic advisory and data management system for vehicular collisions. The project will be divided into two modules: the Client Module and the Server Module. The Client Module hardware will consist of an opensource computing platform with sensor, GSM and GPS shields. The software will consist of an Arduino program for the microcontroller. The Server Module will consist of a database wherein the location, timestamp and sensor data is stored and a website coded in PHP or HTML to display the data from the database. The type of sensor to be used in this project is the most common and readily available in the Philippines. Sensors designed to specifically detect car crash are mostly manufactured, sold and tested in other countries, therefore the main function of the sensor module is limited to just triggering the controller to gather data from the accelerometer and logging it into the database. The standard threshold used by car security systems in designing car crash sensors will not be used because of the limited scale of accelerometer and limited means of testing. Instead, a lower threshold will be set in order to trigger the data gathering function of the microcontroller.

Verification of accuracy of sensor data will only be done by calibrating the sensor and comparing the ideal data output and actual data output since there is no vehicular collision device and vehicular collision testing facility available in the Philippines. The study will not cover crash testing involving actual vehicles. Vehicle design and construction, including the placement of the device inside the vehicle, will be hardly considered. The term vehicular collision used in this study would refer only to impacts beyond the set threshold. Other factors that will determine vehicular impact will be neglected. The study will also not include cyberspace security.

1.5 Definition of Terms

Vehicular collision - occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree or utility pole.

Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) - a digital mobile telephony system that uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.

Global Positioning System (GPS) - a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

Data Logger - an electronic device or module, which records data over time or a relation to a location. It has either a built-in instrument or sensor or via external instruments and sensors.

Database - an organized collection of data, typically in digital form.

Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature

In-vehicle emergency systems have been developed since 2001. These are communication services aimed to provide the automatic notification through GSM of a road traffic accident based on precise GPS-based positioning.

2.1 ECall
Filjar, Vidovic, Britvic, and Rimac5 presented the architecture and technical solution of the modem-based eCall. The eCall device consists of in-vehicle control unit with a GPS receiver and GSM connected to the car sensors. It triggers an emergency call upon the detection of an accident or by manual interaction of the user and sends MSD containing: the timestamp and geographical position of the accident, activation indicator (manual or automatic), and vehicle type and identification number, number of passengers.

A disadvantage of this system is that the device is installed upon manufacture, making the device (1) proprietary of the carmakers, which renders it difficult to use the technology for the publics optimum benefit; and, (2) unavailable in all vehicles, especially those that were manufactured before the technology was developed. Moreover, the system utilizes one of the vehicles pyrotechnic systems like the airbag or seatbelt tensioning system, making the system expensive. 7

2.2 Portable systems

A study by Pinart, Calvo, Nicholson, and Villaverde6 was dedicated to twowheeled and secondhand vehicles. Accelerometer was chosen as the crash sensor and a communications-enabled device which encompasses GSM and Short-Range

Communications (SRC) was included. The device was tested to be viable in a worst-case scenario in terms of Bluetooth link quality and reliable in case of long duration and crash detection. This service, however, requires a vehicles on-board or portable computer, which is absent in older vehicles and expensive to install. Goh, Ng, Jusoff, Chen, and Tan7 conducted a study on a GPS-based approach for reporting thoroughfare problems via GSM. They used a GPS-supported GSM phone and Python script to retrieve GPS signals and send SMS to server.

A study by White, Thompson, Turner, Dougherty, and Schmidt8 describes how smartphones, such as the iPhone and Google Android platforms, can automatically detect traffic accidents, immediately notify a central emergency dispatch server after an accident, and provide situational awareness through photographs, GPS coordinates, VOIP communication channels, and accident data recording. However, phones are mobile, so their motions do not directly mirror the forces the vehicle experiences. In-vehicle accelerometers, on the other hand, are physically mounted to the car, making them more reliable in detecting traffic accidents. 8

2.3 Single-board embedded system

A study by Khan and Mishra9 used a single-board embedded system that is equipped with GPS and GSM modems along with ARM processor that is installed in the vehicle, making the device more compact, less costly, and specifically designed for its function.

2.4 Data logger and Google maps

In the study by Goh, Ng, Jusoff, Chen, and Tan, the SMS server at receivers side transfers data to local computer database. The system optimizes location, date and time data by mapping the site onto Google maps using PHP scripts. The study by White, Thompson, Turner, Dougherty, and Schmidt is a web-based service based entirely on freely-available APIs and open-source software. It is written in Java and utilizes a MySQL database to store accident information. The server communicates with the clients using custom XML (for the Android application) and JSON (for the web-based application). When an accident occurs, it is geo-tagged on the server with its location and entered into a searchable database of accidents. The accident locations are made available through a Google Maps interface.

Chapter 3 Methodology

The Vehicular Collision Automatic Advisory and Data Management System is composed of mainly of the Client Module and the Server Module. The Client Module consists of the in-vehicle device and is implemented using ADIS16204 Programmable High-g Digital Impact Sensor and Recorder, ATmega348 GizDuino v3.0, SIM900D GSM/GPRS Module and GPS Module. The Server Module consists of the online database and the website developed using PHP and HTML, respectively.

3.1 Project Flow

The following flow chart maps out the entire process to finish the project within the allotted time.

Figure 3.1 Project Flowchart 10

3.2 System Overview

The automatic detection of an accident is achieved by constantly monitoring the crash sensor alarm status. The sensor checks x-axis and y-axis output data for sharp spikes in the acceleration values. If a peak above a certain threshold is found, the alarm status becomes active. The microcontroller extracts this peak acceleration data by accessing the appropriate register on the accelerometer. The GPS module constantly outputs NMEA sentences containing location, altitude, and other data. At the instant the accelerometer alarm status becomes active, the microcontroller extracts time and location data from the GPS module. The microcontroller uses AT commands to establish wireless communication and send the accelerometer and GPS data to the server through GPRS and to mobile phones through GSM. The server stores the received data on a database and displays it on a webpage.

Figure 3.2 System Block Diagram

The ADIS16204 Programmable High-g Digital Impact Sensor and Recorder is used as the sensor for the system. The ADIS16204 provides tunable digital sensor data in a convenient format that can be accessed using a serial peripheral interface (SPI). The 11

SPI provides access to measurements for dual-axis linear acceleration, a root sum square (RSS) of both axes, temperature, power supply, an auxiliary analog input, and an event capture buffer memory.

Figure 3.3 ADIS16204 Pin Configuration

The SIM900D GSM/GPRS module is used for the transmission of data. SIM900D is a quad-band GSM/GPRS engine that works on frequencies GSM 850MHz, EGSM 900MHz and PCS 1900MHz. It features GPRS multi-slot class 10/class 8 and supports the GPRS coding schemes CS-1, CS-2, CS-3 and CS-4.

Figure 3.4 SIM900D Pin Configuration

The ATmega328P 8-bit Microcontroller with 4/8/16/32K Bytes In-System Programmable Flash is used as the main microcontroller for the system. ATmega328P is a low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced RISC architecture. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the ATmega48PA/88PA/168PA/328P achieves throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz. 12

Figure 3.5 ATmega328P Pin Configuration

3.3 Hardware Design

3.3.1 ADIS16204: A Programmable High-g Digital Impact Sensor and Recorder

Figure 3.6 ADIS16204 Breakout Board

A simple breakout board is designed for the ADIS16204. The ADIS16204 breakout board is connected to the Gizduino using SPI communication protocol. SCLK (port 2 of J1) is connected to SCLK (port 12 of JP3) of the GizDuino, DOUT (port 4 of J1) is connected to MISO (pin 11 of JP3), and CS (port 3 of J1) is connected to SS (port 10 of JP3). The voltage supply pin (pin 13) of the ADIS16204 is connected to the 3.3V

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port on the Gizduino and the COM pin (pin 16) is connected to the Gizduino GND ports. Output data is available by reading its internal registers.

3.3.2 Client Module

Figure 3.7 GSM/GPRS shield

Figure 3.8 GizDuino v3.0 board

The GSM/GPRS Module and GPS Module are specially designed to function as GizDuino shields. They are mounted directly on the GizDuino board.

3.4 Coding
Serial port configuration on both shields are done separately by connecting the modules to a computer using the GizDuino USB gateway.

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Figure 3.9 MCU program flow

The code for the ATmega328 microcontroller will be written using the Arduino development environment. The code will then be uploaded to the microcontroller by mounting the sensor, GSM/GPRS and GPS shields on the GizDuino board and connecting the board to the computer via USB cable.

Figure 3.10 server module program flow 15

The server system uses MySQL as database. A PHP script is written to retrieve the data from the database and display it on a webpage in tabular form. The system is then simulated using software and implemented in hardware.

3.5 Calibration
Accelerometers are mechanical structures which contain elements that move freely and these elements can be sensitive to mechanical stress. The 0 g bias or offset of an accelerometer defines the baseline for measuring the acceleration. The offset error of an accelerometer is constant value in g that cancels out the error caused by different factors environment, application, soldering and mounting. There are two methods of calibration of the accelerometer considered Gain Method and Two Points Per Axis of Interest Method.

Gain Method:

Figure 1. Output Response vs Orientation to Gravity This calibration method assumes that the gain is equal to 1. This method also limits the accuracy of the system to the non-calibrated error in sensitivity. The axis of interest is placed into a 0 g field and the accelerometer reading is equal to the offset error. The different orientations of each axis placed in a 0 g field is shown in Figure 1. To calibrate the accelerometer, it will be oriented in the same manner in Figure 1 and it is sampled by taking a number of readings and averaging them. The accelerometer must be perfectly still while this is done. The output data from the accelerometer will be compared to the 16

ideal output data of each axis with its respective orientation by calculating its error. Since, accelerometers are quite noisy, averaging values will help in reducing the error introduced by the noise or additional stresses caused by the environment. The 0 g bias or offset error will be calculated using the following equation: AOUT = AOFF + (Gain AACTUAL(x,y,z)) Equation 3.5.1 where: AOFF is the offset error, in g. Gain is the gain of the accelerometer, ideally a value of 1. AACTUAL is the real acceleration acting on the accelerometer and the desired value, in g. AOUT is the acceleration reading of the accelerometer. Two Points Per Axis of Interest Method: Another method of calibration is by calculating the AOFF using two points per axis. X axis will be oriented into +1 g and 1 g field and their actual measured value are as follows when broken down into an equation: A+1g = AOFF + (1 g Gain) Equation 3.5.2 A1g = AOFF (1 g Gain) Equation 3.5.3 Where: AOFF is the offset error, in g. A+1g is the actual measured value of the axis in g if it is oriented at +1g field. A1g is the actual measured value of the axis in g if it is oriented at -1g field. After both values are obtained, AOFF and Gain is calculated using the following equations: AOFF = 0.5 (A+1g + A1g) Equation 3.5.4 Gain = Equation 3.5.5 This type of calibration also helps to minimize cross-axis sensitivity effects as the orthogonal axes are in a 0 g field when making the measurements for the axis of interest. Once the accelerometers offset error is obtained, it the actual acceleration is now obtainable using the equation below: 17

AACTUAL(x,y,z) = Equation 3.5.6 Where: AACTUAL(x,y,z) is the actual acceleration acting on the accelerometer and the desired value in g. AOUT is the acceleration read by the accelerometer. AOFF is the accelerometers offset error. AACTUAL(x,y,z) is then the accelerometer data used to compare the threshold set in the microcontroller and the data to be stored into the database.

3.5 Halfway Deliverables

The connection of the sensor module, GPS Module and GSM/GPRS Module to the microcontroller will be established and the codes for each module will be uploaded to microcontroller using the Arduino Integrated Development Environment.

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Bibliography
[1] DOH National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Factsheet Volume 3, Issue 3, December 2011. DOH National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Factsheet Volume 3, Issue 4, February 2012. DOH National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Factsheet Volume 4, Issue 1, May 2012. ASEAN Region Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan, May 2006. R. Filjar, K. Vidovic, P. Britvic, M. Rimac, "ECALL: AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATION OF A ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT," in MIPRO: 600-605, 2011. C. Pinart, J. C. Calvo, L. Nicholson, J. Villaverde, "Ecall-compliant early crash notification service for portable and nomadic devices," in Vehicular Technology Conference: 1-5, 2009. Goh, Ng, Jusoff, Chen, Tan, "Architecture of a GPS-Based Road Management System," in World Applied Sciences Journal: 26-31, 2011. White, Thompson, Turner, Dougherty, Schmidt, "WreckWatch: Automatic Traffic Accident Detection and Notification with Smartphones," in Mobile Networks and Applications - Volume 16 Issue 3: 285-303, 2011. A. Khan, R. Mishra, "GPS-GSM Based Tracking System," in International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology - Volume 31 Issue 2: 161-164, 2012.

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Gantt Chart

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